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Michael Schumacher and Retirement, Round 2

Itsuo Inouye/Associated PressMichael Schumacher blowing kisses to fans on Thursday at the Suzuka circuit in Japan ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday.

SUZUKA, Japan – Shortly before 5 p.m. in the Formula One paddock in Suzuka on Thurdsay, during the media sessions in advance of the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday, a team press representative asked me where everyone was — who else was giving a media session at that moment that so few were there with his driver?

‘‘They are all over at Mercedes,’’ I said. He nodded. There was no need to elaborate. He knew Lewis Hamilton had signed a three-year deal to race for Mercedes starting next year, replacing Michael Schumacher.

‘‘In fact, I have to get back over there myself,’’ I said. I had attended one of the sessions at Mercedes before popping over to this other team for another interview. But I thought it was interesting that there was another meeting at Mercedes involving Ross Brawn, the team director, Norbert Haug, the director of Mercedes Motorsports, and Michael Schumacher. I did not want to miss this.

The previous Mercedes meeting I had attended involved the driver Nico Rosberg, who was grilled with questions by the British media about the Hamilton move. Rosberg enjoyed talking about Hamilton, a friend with whom he had been a teammate when they were kids, go-karting together and sharing the same hotel rooms.

‘‘We used to talk about how cool it would be when we were teammates in Formula One some day,’’ he said. ‘‘And now it is really happening!’’

It was all very bright and optimistic. But what was this meeting with Schumacher and his two bosses all about? When I arrived back at the Mercedes hospitality unit, it was standing room only. The place was packed with cameras, microphones, pens, handheld computers and their journalist owners from all around the world.

The tone was quite different when Michael Schumacher sat down and began reading from a prepared script. He came to announce his retirement from Formula One at the end of the season.

We had, many of us, seen him do this before in 2006. While none of us particularly imagined that we would see him return to race again starting in 2010, it was somehow much less touching and dramatic than his first retirement announcement. The Schumacher of Thursday reading his farewell — and thanking especially his wife Corinna — was far from a pitiable figure. He had not, for once, succeeded in doing what he set out to do. In three years after his return to racing, his best results were a pole position in Monaco this year, and a third place at the European Grand Prix in Valencia in June. No more victories to add to that grand tally of 91 in his previous career, from 1991 to 2006. And certainly not an eighth world drivers’ title.

This was clearly a different, more humble, more accessible Schumacher, aged 43. He even came out with a line about how ‘‘losing can be more instructive’’ than winning. The Schumacher of the past would never accept defeat, to the point that he was judged to have purposefully knocked Jacques Villeneuve off the track in an effort to win the title in 1997, and had his points erased for that full season as punishment.

‘‘In a different way, we have had a great three years – we didn’t achieve what we wanted,’’ he said Thursday. He added: ‘‘When I came back, I found it was possible to be open and enjoy and be focused.’’

He explained that in his first years in Formula One before his first retirement, he had not been capable of fully enjoying his time in the series because of the effort it took to be as focused as he had to be.

He said that he had had doubts for quite a while about having the energy to continue at this highest level of the sport, and he finished by saying, ‘‘There are many other beautiful things in life that you can do,’’ aside from racing.

This sounded like a man who will succeed better in retirement this time around. It sounded like a much more mellow and complete person, who has grown from his latest foray into racing. Many people say that Schumacher’s return has sullied his reputation. But for me, it has only contributed in growing it.